Five Times Steve and Tony Fought
by Elspeth1
Summary: Their fights have always defined their relationship. It just used to be more fun than this.


**DISCLAIMER: **All characters and situation appearing herein were originally created by Marvel Comics. No profit is being made off this work.

**Posted by:** Elspethdixon

**Fandom: **Iron Man/Avengers/Civil War

**Pairings:** About as gen as Bendis writes them (which is to say, not very)

**Notes:** I can't claim to have come up with the idea, since "Casualties of War" did it first.

* * *

**Five Times Steve and Tony Fought**

_"Them's fighting words, Captain America"_

1) A month of so after Steve had joined the Avengers, a shape-shifting villain named Chameleon burst into Tony's office wearing Steve's face, claiming that someone posing as Captain America had attacked him. Tony, angry enough to make his heart explode -- thank god for technology and armored breastplates -- had charged out to track the imposter down, and had ended up (of course) fighting the real Captain America. It had taken Steve a ridiculously long amount of time to convince him that he'd made a mistake. Tony had always suspected that he had secretly enjoyed the fight.

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2) Two days after Justin Hammer had turned Iron Man into his own remote-controlled weapon, Tony went to Steve for a self-defense lesson. Hammer had forced him to publicly "retire" his "bodyguard," had taken away his ability to rely on the armor in combat, and he needed, _needed_ to track the son of a bitch down and make him pay. Then, Tony reasoned, when he made sure Hammer could never control his armor again, he would be able to sleep without seeing that poor diplomat's face as Iron Man's out-of-control repulsor beam burned right through him.

Until then, scotch and Tennessee whisky would have to do -- he couldn't get anything done if he couldn't sleep.

Steve mopped the floor with him, showed him how to roll when he fell to let his shoulder take the impact, and told Tony to tell "Iron Man" that he still had his support.

* * *

3) "Stop whining, rich boy!"

That was a smirk, damnit. He was trying to hide it, but under that "grim and serious" face, Steve was smirking at him.

"Them's fighting words, _Captain America_," Tony responded. He offered Steve his most obnoxious know-it-all grin and shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, fists ready -- and the heel of Steve's hand caught him on the shoulder and he was on the mat again.

"Good," Steve said, and he was definitely smirking now. "Let me know when you decide to put one up."

At this point, he was convinced these "self-defense lessons" were being held purely because Steve was bored and wanted to hit something. Tony groaned, and waited for the ceiling to stop spinning.

"Now get up," Steve ordered, "and let's do it again."

* * *

4) "That," Peter said enthusiastically, "was _so_ cool!" He was practically bouncing on his toes, and looked all of fourteen.

Sometimes, it was hard to believe that the original Avengers had started out when they were all younger than he was now.

"I know." Tony grinned down at him, feeling oddly proud even though he hadn't actually done anything but dodge and block Steve's blows repeatedly without ever managing to land a serious one of his own. "I didn't land on my ass on the mat once. And I think I actually connected that last time."

"You did." Steve rubbed his jaw with one hand. "If you'd pivoted a little faster, you would have knocked me over."

"I'd like to point out for the twenty-somethingth time that you have more mass than I do." And super-human reflexes, but playing the "I lost because you have super-powers" card never cut any ice with Steve. _"Hydra soldiers don't have super-powers," _he'd said last time Tony had tried it, _"and you might have to face one of them without your pretty metal toys some day."_

"You're right." Steve's lips curved up a bit, and he added, "If I were Peter's size, you would have cleaned my clock."

"Praise from Caesar," Tony retorted, just to see the way Steve's eyebrows drew together when he was annoyed.

"Come on," Peter said. "I'm not _that_ short. And anyway, I've got manueverability. And stabbity stinger-things in my wrists."

"Good," Steve told him. "You're next."

"...it's not to late to quit, is it?"

* * *

5) There was a week or so, right after the time he hit Jan, when Hank came very close to killing himself. Nobody but Tony knows this, because the depression part of "manic-depressive" isn't something Hank talks about much. Except for once, right after Bill Foster died, when they were sitting alone in the Baxter Building's laboratory and trying not to think about how badly they had screwed up. Tony, listening, remembered those nights when even alcohol couldn't make the dark whispers in the corners of his brain shut up, remembered the too-recent feel of Steve's jaw giving under his armored fist, and understood.

They sat in awkward silence for a few moments before Tony suggested that they really needed to find a better way to control Reed's pet clone.

* * *

For those with as little of a life as I:

#1. Tales of Suspense (referenced again in Casualties of War).

#2. Iron Man, vol 1. Justin Hammer arc (referenced again in Casualties of War).

#3. Iron Man, vol 3. Mask in the Iron Man arc.

#4. New Avengers

#5. Civil War

All fights but #4 come from canon.


End file.
